Straightening of Duwamish River begins on October 14, 1913.

On October 14, 1913, the straightening of the Duwamish River into the Duwamish Waterway begins. Twenty million cubic yards of mud and sand are moved until the bends of the river are filled and the main channel is deepened.

When the Duwamish tribe lived along the river, it meandered in curves to Elliott Bay. At high water and plus tides, much of the surrounding land was under water. Steamboats could navigate as far as Kent, but ocean-going vessels could not use the river.

The Builders

In 1895, former governor Eugene Semple (1840-1908) proposed an ambitious plan of public works which included digging a canal from Elliott Bay to Lake Washington, filling in the tide flats south of downtown Seattle, and straightening the Duwamish River. That same year, the Washington State Legislature authorized the formation of diking and dredging districts.

In 1901, Semple began his canal, and the soil from Beacon Hill was sluiced into the tideflats. Work stopped on the project due to cave-ins, but filling the wetlands continued with soil from regrades in Seattle.

In 1909, at the urging of City Engineer R. H. Thomson (1856-1946), Seattle formed the Duwamish Waterway Commission to sell bonds and to rechannel the river. A deeper, straighter river would allow ships to navigate to the industries envisioned for the reclaimed land, and would also alleviate the flooding that plagued the area.

The Commission purchased a dredge and named it Duwamish I. Dredging began at the County Poor Farm in Georgetown. The meanders eventually disappeared except for recesses in the channel to accommodate high water flows and turning ships. Parts of Georgetown and South Park once on a quiet riverbank found themselves inland. Industry expanded south from Seattle on the newly reclaimed land. By 1920, the Duwamish Waterway had been extended to a depth of 50 feet for 4½ miles.

The old course of the Duwamish can be (in 2001) traced in curved streets of Georgetown such as S Front Street, S Fidalgo Street, and S River Street.

Sources:Duwamish Diary, (Seattle: Cleveland High School, 1949), 65; Clarence Bagley, The History of Seattle from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1916), 357; Paul Dorpat and Genevieve McCoy, Building Washington: A History ov Washington State Public Works, (Seattle: Tartu Publications, 1998), 42, 171, 257.

Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that
encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both
HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any
reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this
Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For
more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact
the source noted in the image credit.

Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided
By: The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins
| Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry
| 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle
| City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach
Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private
Sponsors and Visitors Like You

This essay made possible by:
The SCHOONER Project: The Hon. Jan Drago Seattle City Council Seattle Department of NeighborhoodsRivers-in-Time Project:King County Landmarks & Heritage Commission

HistoryLink.org is the first online encyclopedia
of local and state history created expressly for the Internet.
(SM)
HistoryLink.org is a free public and educational resource produced
by History Ink, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt corporation.
Contact us by phone at 206.447.8140, by mail at Historylink, 1411 4th Ave. Suite 803, Seattle WA 98101 or email admin@historylink.org